Isola: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Birds appear throughout the text both physically and figuratively in descriptive imagery symbolizing Marguerite’s freedom. For example, in Perigord, Marguerite has a pet finch that she keeps in an ornate, gilded cage. This bird represents Marguerite’s confinement, as she lives in a comfortable and rich castle, but she is essentially imprisoned within it. At La Rochelle, Marguerite envies Alys’s freedom of movement throughout the house and the city, so she compares Alys to a sparrow. Like a bird, Alys can come and go as she pleases without restriction, whereas Marguerite can only traverse a few rooms in the house. Aboard the ship in the middle of the ocean, there are no birds, but Marguerite again employs bird imagery to express her new feelings of freedom. She compares the stars to birds during her nighttime meetings with Auguste because she feels able to express her true desires unreservedly under cover of darkness.

Goodman uses the birds on the island to expand this symbol further, using it as a touchstone for Marguerite’s evolving relationship to her own independence. Marguerite finally feels free from Roberval’s grasp, but she’s also stuck in an unknown land, unable to leave. The birds’ presence on the island at once remind her of both her freedom and her captivity. Marguerite recognizes human qualities in the birds, like their expressive blue eyes, and even claims the birds are superior to her group of exiles, noting: “I said they were like us, but they were better—braver, warmer in down feathers. Their colony dwarfed ours, and they were rich, well fed in autumn, for they could dive for fish, while we could only cast a line” (192). Marguerite often dreams of transforming into a bird, indicating her descent into pure animal instinct in the wilderness and highlighting the novel’s thematic interest in Survival Conditions as a Catalyst for Personal Growth. After living on the island for a year, Marguerite directly associates herself with the birds because she too must “kill to eat,” giving herself over to the animalistic instincts needs to survive (240). The book’s first sentence declares that Marguerite “still dream[s] of birds” (i), illustrating the long-lasting impact the island has on Marguerite’s character.